31-year marriage ends in bloodshed as 13 in-laws hunt down Zhombe man
A 31-year marriage ended in a brutal midnight attack after a group of 13 relatives allegedly hunted down a Zhombe man who had fled into the bush following a domestic dispute over beans.
Mpendulo Nyoni, 55, was beaten, stabbed and left with broken limbs after his wife, Sichelesile Dube, 52, returned to her family following an assault at their home. The couple had four children together, including a 31-year-old child and a youngest child who is sitting for Form Four (O-Level) examinations this year.
The attack has left Nyoni’s family demanding 32 head of cattle as compensation. Fifteen cattle have reportedly already been paid, leaving 17 still outstanding in the family’s demand.
The case has also exposed a chain of violence that began with a quarrel over harvested beans and ended with a man being pursued through the night, hiding in a thicket and surviving on raw sweet potatoes as he tried to avoid his in-laws.
Nyoni’s sister, Nokuthula, said her brother sent her a message warning that he feared he would be killed. By then, he had stopped living openly at home and was returning only after midnight while relatives searched for him in two scotch carts.
“He sent me a message saying he feared for his life and had started living in the bush, surviving on raw sweet potatoes. He said if his in-laws killed him, we should not bury him but we should burn his body,” said Nokuthula.
She said the warning became reality on 20 May 2026, when the group found Nyoni at around midnight in Majoli Village, under Chief Mlisa.
“They beat him up thoroughly. They broke both his arms and legs and stabbed him several times. They assaulted him at two locations and did rituals at each spot. At one they killed a cock and hen, spilled its blood roasted the meat and left the entrails and heads. At another spot, the disembowelled and goat and did a similar ritual,” she said.
Nokuthula said Nyoni was attacked at two separate locations before the group returned to the family home and took livestock and other property. She said the assailants also took Nyoni’s mobile phone, which the family believes may have removed evidence that could have helped investigators reconstruct the attack.
Nyoni died on 20 May and was buried six days later, on 26 May. His family says it wants every person involved in the attack identified, arrested and prosecuted.
“We want everyone involved in my brother’s death to be arrested and prosecuted according to Zimbabwean law,” Nokuthula said.
The family’s account places Nyoni’s death at the end of a fast-moving domestic dispute. In May, Sichelesile allegedly sold some beans from the couple’s harvest without informing her husband. Nyoni then assaulted her, prompting her to leave the matrimonial home and seek refuge with her brothers.
According to the police account, Sichelesile told her family what had happened and the relatives then went after Nyoni. The dispute that began inside a long-standing marriage became a confrontation involving a large group of relatives and a man who was no longer sleeping safely in his own home.
National police spokesperson Commissioner Paul Nyathi said six suspects had been named in connection with the attack. They are Sichelesile Dube, 52, Nkululeko Dube, 27, Julia Dube, 26, Terence Dube, 25, Mbongeni Dube, 27, and Disay Dube, 24.
Only Sichelesile and Terence had been arrested when the case was reported. Sichelesile had been granted bail, while the other named suspects were still being sought. Police said the matter was set for hearing at Kwekwe Magistrates’ Court and appealed to anyone with information about the remaining suspects to come forward.
“Mpendulo Nyoni had assaulted his wife due to a dispute at home. The wife went and told the family who attacked Mpendulo at Majoli Village under Chief Mlisa on the 20th of May 2026,” Comm Nyathi said.
“The other suspects the police named are on the run and the police are appealing to members of the public who know their whereabouts to come forward,” he said.
“All evidence is still being gathered to present before the courts. The matter is under investigation.”
Nokuthula said Nyoni’s relatives were troubled by the number of people involved and by what she described as the severity of the assault. She also questioned what happened inside the marriage during the attack and whether Sichelesile watched as her brothers assaulted her husband of 31 years.
“The killing was so gruesome, we wonder what was going through our daughter-in-law’s mind as she watched her brothers beating up her husband of 31 years. They have four children together.
The oldest is 31 years old and the youngest is sitting for form four examinations this year.”
Attempts to speak to Sichelesile between July and August were unsuccessful because she could not be reached on her mobile phone. Her son, Khayelihle Nyoni, declined to comment and said any further discussions should take place at Kwekwe Police Station.
The demand for cattle has added another layer to the tragedy. Nyoni’s relatives say 32 head of cattle should be paid as compensation, while 15 have already been handed over. The figure is now part of the family’s effort to deal with the loss and the consequences of the killing.
A similar cattle demand followed a devastating family murder in Gokwe in 2017. In that case, a man identified as Dingilizwe Dube was reported to have killed four sisters and axed eight cattle belonging to their family. The victims’ relatives demanded 48 cattle — 10 for each of the four daughters and eight for the animals killed in the kraal. The accused man’s family approached the victims’ relatives after the burials to discuss compensation, while the suspect remained in hiding.
The two cases are separated by nearly a decade and arose from different circumstances, but both show how a family killing can continue beyond the violence itself, with negotiations over cattle becoming part of the aftermath. In the Nyoni case, the demand has followed a dispute that began over household produce and grew into a confrontation involving extended relatives.
The direction of the violence was reversed in another Zimbabwean case that reached the High Court in 2025. Tafirei Ndlovu received two life sentences after being convicted of the murders of his in-laws, Xolani Mpofu and Sibalungele Ncube, in Plumtree on 14 April 2022.
The court heard that the couple were assaulted with axes and dragged into a kitchen hut, which was then set alight. The victims’ daughter had left Botswana and returned to her parents after marital problems. Ndlovu reportedly contacted his mother-in-law, saying he wanted to reconcile with his wife and her family, but arrived at the home during the night and killed the couple. He then forced his wife towards Botswana before she managed to alert border police.
That case ended with a conviction and two life sentences. The Nyoni case, by contrast, remains centred on the search for the other people named by police and on the family’s demand that all those involved in the midnight attack be brought before the courts.
For the Nyoni family, the account of what happened begins with a message sent from the bush, where a frightened man was hiding from the relatives of the woman he had married more than three decades earlier. It ends with a burial, a disputed list of suspects, a missing phone, broken limbs, allegations of ritual activity and a compensation demand measured in cattle.
The family says the attack did not come from strangers. It came from people connected to Nyoni through his marriage and through the household he had built with Sichelesile. Their four children now stand at the centre of a family tragedy in which a disagreement over beans was followed by an assault that claimed their father’s life.
Police continue to appeal for information on the whereabouts of the suspects who have not been arrested. The case is expected to proceed at Kwekwe Magistrates’ Court as investigators gather the evidence surrounding Nyoni’s death and the events that led to it.